HA! How's that for a title!!! Not too shabby, huh? Gimme some love for that!!!

Okay, I have to say - Brock is my newest favorite wrestler!!! I absolutely, 100% LOVE the new crazy went nuts, hand twitching, Taker-beating, chair swinging, maniacal laughing Brock Lesner! I love it. I love him pushing Zach down the stairs - he PUSHED Zach down the fucking stairs! HAHAHAHAHA

I am so going to hell. :-)

What a great SD. Thankfully, we were spared the Plastic People Bikini Contest, though Nidia clearly is hilarious. Especially when she hits Tazz in the jewels! LOL

Taker v Angle match was classy. Awesome match and great run in by Brock. I've always been kind of down on Taker but he's been catching my eye lately. The look on his face when Kurt kicked out after the choke slam was pure gold. Now, I wouldn't go giving him the title or anything but I can tolerate matches with him now.

Benoit v A-Train - great match. I am not a A-train mark, his hairy back simply creeps me out. But even HE was watchable.

Eddie...man, I thought he was gonna have a heart attack freaking out on Steph. And we are gonna be treated to a Latino Street Fight! NICE!!! I don't think I've ever seen one of those.

So, this last week I've been enjoying wrestlers I don't normally enjoy. I believe this phenom lies in two possible scenarios:1) Watching wrestling sober. Not a common practice with me this summer but since the summer is over for the most part and I must now work on reducing all those empty calories I consumed with actually doing more than the old 12 oz. curls, I've discovered wrestling can be watched sober and it may even be better. Still, football season has started so that will cut into PPV time.2) The PPV split. It leaves more time to build storylines instead of the mad 3-4 week rush, and it seems to me, and I'm not a wrestler (bedrooms don't count, right?) but if I were on SD or Raw, this format would def take a lot of pressure off. It just seems the wrestlers are getting more into their characters and actually having some fun with it. I mean, Brock had a smile on his face the whole night! Even when the crowd was taunting him!

I dunno. Either way, to me, wrestling has been very enjoyable.

What the hell are those little things on the "W" up top? Are they ghosts? Or just fat people farting? Kind of creeping me out a little bit...

Worth the price of popcorn: Angle v Taker matchWorth the price of spitting out your beer all over the person sitting in front of you and risk getting your ass kicked because they're a Zach mark or something: Brock taunting Zach then throwing his ass down the stairs

Tomboy: What do you mean you can never think of thread titles?? Feh. Very nice! :-)

Undertaker / Angle was excellent. Amazing that they gave it away on free TV, but I think that's a very good thing to do occasionally. The way they mixed up Kurt's classic wrestling with Taker's more brutal style. All the counters & reversals. That cool counter to the Last Ride setup, where Kurt basically slid down Taker. Interesting submission stuff. (Kurt was only drooling a little bit on Taker's crotch during that one long submission hold.) Tazz & Cole calling the wrestling & providing the supplemental strategic discussion. The old-style, solo promos setting it up were beautifully done, & signalled that this was going to be more than just an ordinary match. Taker's line about "I will let you break my ankle before I tap" was fantastic. And then during the match, when he was almost going to tap, but wouldn't -- nice. Even the business with Kurt at the trainers, & Taker dragging himself out, making wounded buffalo noises. The whole thing was just awesome.

OK, we have to have a bikini contest. But it turns out that we only have to watch the highlights! Yea! Nidia was hilarious. (Was Tazz expecting to be whacked with Nidia's beads, or was he just in the wrong place? "That hurt." Tee-hee.) And the whole thing winds up with Shaniqua coming out to kick everybody's ass, which I loved, of course. Including the press-drop of Nidia onto the floor! If we have to have a bikini contest, this was a pretty tolerable way to present it.

Then we get Rey / Tajiri. Killer good cruiserweight stuff. Tajiri catching Rey in mid-air with the kick. Rey's suicide dive. Rey ducks Tajiri's kick, so Tajiri's foot gets hung up on the turnbuckle, so that Rey can whack his other leg. We're tossing, we're flying. This is great stuff!!

I still really-really-really hate commercials in the middle of matches, but if we have to put up with them to get this much stuff that's this good, I suppose I can deal.

Then we have Brock. I'm just not into it. Maybe I will be, but so far, not working for me. Kane is so good at being a psycho monster, that running the same thread in parallel on the other show, with a less skilled performer is a poor plan. That last segment ran a full 10 minutes, in addition to the 2 previous segments in the show. Brockie's just not good enough (yet) at the acting/verbal/improv part to carry that much. It seems to me like he's having trouble embracing a character that far out, & so he has trouble staying fully in character. There were several points where Brock lost his flow, & Vince had to nudge him along. And several more where he blanked on what to say altogether. Get on with it! (Hey, when Randy Orton wanted to toss Mick Foley down the staircase, he just tossed him down the damn staircase.) And Vince at the end, after 10 minutes, finally acting like he was concerned. Weird. Not doing it for me.

On other topics:

Benoit / A-Train with Rhyno kinda got lost, but it was good. Rhyno just does not have a whole lot of luck trying to help out his buddies! I'm waiting for somebody to actually say, "Don't help me, Rhyno." :-)

(I have a friend who is distinctly furrier than Albert. He's blond, so it's a different look, & he doesn't have the kinky accessories. Totally do-able!)

Loved Charlie's cheat-to-win, first dragging Shelton's leg over the ropes, then whacking Bradshaw with the belt. This wasn't quite as good as the APA/WGTT on last weekend's Velocity, but it wasn't bad.

Tazz tossed in a very Emeril Lagasse style "Bam" -- very appropriate since they're in New Orleans. I wonder if he gets a free appetizer for that? :-)

Bradshaw has a deed for a short, african-american butler named Bruce? WTF?

That would be a pretty low-speed car theft, with Cena very cautiously backing out of the arena, then out of the building. Eddie pretty much had time to stroll over to the moving car & stop Cena.

When Vince & Big Show were blocking off Steph's office, I didn't know what was supposed to be going on in there. Sounded to me more like either Brock shooting hoops or banging Sable. Whichever. It did not sound like Brock beating up Zach.

Originally posted by emmaWhen Vince & Big Show were blocking off Steph's office, I didn't know what was supposed to be going on in there. Sounded to me more like either Brock shooting hoops or banging Sable. Whichever. It did not sound like Brock beating up Zach.

Overall, lotta excellent stuff makes emma very happy.

First of all, thanks Tomboy for starting the Smackdown thread, because I didn't see the show at all last night. I did read the recaps, and I missed some good stuff. Oh well, I won't cry a river, because my birthday's coming up on the 10th. :-) I think crazy Brock might work, if what I read is any indication. I don't know, you know how manipulative these WWE folks are. I'm sick of Torrie winning all the bikini contests, by the way.

Remember, that whole thing with Al and Dawn Marie started because Dawn was tired of Torrie winning all the time...at least that's how I think it started. Who cares? Like I said, I'm real sorry I missed the show, but it's all good. I'll save my Iron Man comments for another thread.

I liked Smackdown quite a bit this week. The tag team match and the Benoit/A-Train match were good for what they were. I'm happy they are FINALLY going with the Benoit/Rhyno feud. Better late than never I suppose. The Taker/Angle title match was great! That's the best match I've seen Taker in in quite some time. I didn't like the finish so much, because I think it could've happened after a pin or something. But then again, I guess they wanted Taker and Angle to both look strong. Anyways, Brock going completly psycho on them was good. The Rey and Tajiri match was pretty damn awesome too. Now if they get to have rematches because of the post match shenadigans of Tajiri, I'll be one happy camper. Can't go wrong with Tajiri and Rey! The Brock/Zach beatdown was pretty cool. It really made Brock look badass. I think my favorite part was Brock 'letting' Zach 'run' away and then pulling him back for not being fast enough. Ah, now that's being a good monster.

RM - no problem. Just don't expect too many cuz I'm just not that creative. Making thread titles anyway... ;-)

Emma - I'm surprised you don't dig Brock. I actually never got the parallel with him and Kane until I read your post. Kane is just plain psychotic. The boy cannot be compared as he's just that good. With Brock, what does it for me, is seeing him go from playing buddy-buddy with Angle to a hand twitching bad guy. The fact that he's not good at it makes it work even more. I mean, yeah he's huge and built and strong, but those boyish good looks and goofy smile are completly the opposite of what I look for in an insane monster (see: Kane). His poor mic skills I think lend credibility to his brain just being overloaded with anger and put over the character, like is thoughts are moving too fast for his mouth. And the fucking taunting of Zach was creepy. I dunno, I thought it was great. Maybe he'll grow on you. :-)